LeFlore Jury: Simpson Guilty Of Killing Pregnant Girlfriend

LeFlore Jury: Simpson Guilty Of Killing Pregnant Girlfriend

POTEAU — A Spiro man was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder Thursday evening in the 2012 shooting death of a Fort Smith woman and the subsequent death of her 8- to 12-week-old fetus.

A nine-woman, three-man LeFlore County jury deliberated almost seven hours before finding Christopher Kenyon Simpson, 27, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder.

Jurors recommended the maximum sentence, life without the possibility of parole and a $10,000 fine on both counts. Formal sentencing is set for 11 a.m. Nov. 8 before LeFlore County District Judge Jon Sullivan.

After the courtroom emptied, Crawford County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jacob Howell and District 27 Assistant District Attorney Anthony Evans credited the verdict in the complicated and mostly circumstantial case to smart, attentive jurors.

In closing arguments on the sixth day of Simpson’s trial, Howell projected onto a video screen a photo of 20-year-old victim Ka’Loni Flynn’s body sitting in the driver’s seat of her car, bullet wounds to her forehead and temples.

Some audience members gasped audibly in the crowded, otherwise quiet courtroom gallery.

“We know that’s how we got here,” Howell said, indicating the photo.

“I hope we showed you this was investigated thoroughly, and that every possible suspect was investigated and excluded except one,” Howell said.

The prosecution contends Simpson planned the murders, then shot Flynn execution-style twice in the head on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012, killing her and her fetus because he did not want another child to support, and Flynn refused an abortion.

Howell contended Simpson’s planning began in early April 2012 when he asked Mackenzi Clayton, a relative, about tracking a pay-as-you-go phone.

Throughout the investigation and court proceedings, Simpson repeatedly denied having bought such a phone despite a Walmart video showing him doing so, then on Wednesday he testified he bought it, but for Clayton, not for himself, Howell said.

Howell reminded the jury that Flynn’s roommate testified Flynn left their apartment around 10:30 p.m. April 8, a time matching the 10:30 p.m. call Simpson’s cousin’s wife testified she saw him engaged in at her garage.

Howell reminded jurors that Verizon Wireless, Cricket Wireless and Federal Bureau of Investigation cellular analysis experts testified about how the calls between the phone Simpson purchased and Flynn’s phone pinged in cell towers covering the U.S. 271 corridor where Simpson planned to spend the night with his cousins in Fort Smith and the rural McGinnis Lane area between Pocola and Spiro where Flynn’s body was found.

Between 10:37 and 10:58 p.m. April 8, the pay-as-you-go phone called Flynn’s phone six times.

Howell said at 11:01 p.m. Flynn’s phone called the pay-as-you-go phone, and two employees of the Sac-N-Pac near McGinnis Lane testified they heard two to three gunshots around 11 p.m.

Howell contended Simpson’s whereabouts were not accounted for between 10:30 p.m. and 11:21 p.m., when he made a purchase at an E-Z Mart near his cousins’ home.

And Howell reminded jurors that Simpson’s cousins testified they became concerned about Simpson’s prolonged absence for the quick trip to the E-Z Mart and called him three times beginning at 11 p.m. Those calls rolled to voice mail.

In his closing statement, defense attorney Warren Gotcher of McAlester argued that the two Sac-N-Pac clerks stayed outside on their smoke break for 10 minutes after hearing the gunshots and never saw a car exit McGinnis Lane.

Gotcher argued the timeline evidence showed Simpson couldn’t have been involved. He said area resident Erica Hawkins saw Flynn’s car in the roadway at 11:41 p.m., and pulled around to shine her bright headlights on it. He reminded jurors that Hawkins testified the driver’s window was rolled down and she saw a red light inside the car, but she didn’t see anyone in the car.

Gotcher suggested the light could have been from a phone charger found unattached on the seat next to Flynn.

Gotcher said when deputy Terry Springwater arrived on the scene around 3 a.m. April 9, the car window was rolled only three-fourths the way down, the parking lights were on, the trunk was unlatched and there was a body in the car.

Gotcher reminded jurors an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation expert testified that Flynn’s body had not been moved after she was shot.

“Sometime between 11:41 p.m. and 3 a.m., the window was rolled three-fourths the way down, parking lights turned on and trunk unlatched and maybe the phone charger disconnected,” Gotcher contended.

He contended, too, that Clayton testified as the prosecution wished because he was afraid his parole would be revoked, and that Simpson’s cousins, likewise, testified as they had because they’d been threatened with a firearms charge and having their child taken away.

Evans contended Simpson attempted character assassination of Flynn and attempted to divert blame for her murder to others because “the defendant has the spotlight on him, and it’s hot, and he needs to get it off him. So what does he do? He pushes it over here. Desperate men do desperate things.”

Evans contended Simpson destroyed or manipulated evidence throughout the investigation.

“I submit to you that beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant is guilty of killing Ka’Loni Flynn, and when he shot her, he also killed his own child,” Evans said.